Scroogle's future in doubt: Google shimmies again to avoid privacy proxy

By Andrew Orlowski

The long-term future of proxy server Scroogle is seriously in doubt, according to operator Daniel Brandt. Scroogle has scraped Google pages since 2002 by piping results through an anonymizing server. By using the service surfers could remain anonymous, but more importantly use Google without the compulsory 40-year cookie.

The site used an obscure Google search page, originally designed for the IE 6 side bar, which had remained unchanged until this year.

However the over-the-wire format of the results changed in May, leaving Scroogle temporarily offline. It soon returned.

Now Brandt says that the format has changed again, and in what sounds like a valedictory thanked his users for their support. He writes that Scroogle is unable to parse the revised "IE" format, and Google's regular SERPs pages are too complex and also change too often to parse reliably.

Both ixquick and Yauba tout themselves as alternatives that respect privacy. Of the two, ixquick seems to have less Web2.0rhea.